


Pages from Middle Earth

by DragonHoardsBooks



Series: Pages from the Bookhoard [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23822101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonHoardsBooks/pseuds/DragonHoardsBooks
Summary: Prompts originally from my tumblr crossposted here. Here be the Hobbit and possibly other Tolkien works
Series: Pages from the Bookhoard [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716337
Kudos: 4





	1. Red Coats and Roses

Bilbo Baggins returns to the Shire not exactly heartbroken, but not happy either. He’d spent the winter in Erebor, helping with the reconstruction. For a while, Bilbo had thought that maybe he would be happy there, with the friends he had found in his dwarrows and the special connection he’d formed with Fili. Well, maybe not so much the connection with Fili.

Dwarven courtship, it turned out, was ridiculously complicated, with ritualized gift giving and declarations and whatnot. In a way the other dwarfs proclaimed very romantic, Fili seemed intent in covering Bilbo in gems and Durin blue. Bilbo had accepted the gifts, somewhat bemused, but had quietly wondered what on Arda he was supposed to do with them. Since he was a hobbit, Bilbo was apparently exempt from dwarfish customs, a fact that for some reasons rankled immensely. Though where he would find flowers to give in return according to Hobbit custom, Bilbo had no idea.

The first inkling that it may not be the happy end he wished for, Bilbo got in the middle of winter. King Thranduil sent Bilbo a branch of evergreen, with a white ribbon tied around. While Bilbo was astonished that Thranduil apparently remembered the old Hobbit custom of asking for forgiveness and a new beginning, and delighted that he finally had something green around him, the dwarrows and especially Fili had pitched an absolute fit. _Just a piece of wood is not worthy of a member of Durin’s line_. Bilbo had explained that growing things were very much accepted gifts among Hobbits, but nevertheless, just three days later the branch was gone from his quarters.

Because Bilbo was by nature a stubborn person, he regularly exchanged letters with Thranduil, who told Bilbo what he remembered about the _Hobytla_ , who had lived in the Anduin Valley many centuries ago. When Thorin tried to forbid the letters, Bilbo had given him a Look and threatened to just stay with the elves in Mirkwood then. From this point on, Bilbo’s writing had just been another Hobbit thing.

A _Hobbit thing_. Bilbo’s quirks were tolerated, but apart from Ori who asked about the origins of Hobbit customs, the dwarfs made no move to understand the culture Bilbo grew up with. As the snow thawed and Bilbo rejoiced in the plants that tentatively started to grow, he wondered if he couldn’t grow a small garden somewhere. When he voiced that idea at dinner that day, the answer was an immediate denial. _No. Too dangerous. More important duties inside the mountain…_ And Bilbo was certain that he couldn’t stay.

He put away the jewelry that he mostly wore to make Fili happy. The expensive clothing that was way too elaborate for his tastes he left behind. And as he left the halls that in another time might have been his home, he turned around and gave Fili the bead he had woven into Bilbo’s hair. _I cannot be with you if you don’t accept me for all that I am. And I am a Hobbit._

Then he was picked up by the rider Thranduil had sent him. In the Elven King’s halls he put on the delightful travel cloak made for him. In red, because at least someone listened to him about his favorite color. And then, over the Misty Mountains, through Rivendell and Bree until he reached the Shire.

Bilbo steps through his front door. He puts down his travel bag and the small chest with coins he’d taken from Erebor. He unbuckles Sting and puts it on the table. One by one, he walks through the rooms of Bag End. Until he reaches the back door. Bilbo steps into the garden, fresh and growing things under his toes, and the smell of blooming flowers in the air. There is something new here. A small rose bush is blooming red in a spot Bilbo long thought about filling. And next to it, Hamfast Gamgee, smiling shyly and holding a fresh bouquet of flowers. And Bilbo knows he made the right choice.


	2. Sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by "Sorry" by Halsey

Nori bears scars on his body and his soul. Scars from a blade he couldn’t block, and scars from the heart he had broken. He doesn’t trust easily, always waiting, always prepared for the moment he gets stabbed in the back. Relationships aren’t something he goes looking for, they always end in tears and sometimes (literal) knifes through the heart.

Nori joins the Company of Thorin Oakenshield mostly to keep his idiot brothers alive on that suicide quest, and in some small part to get the King’s pardon. It’d be nice to visit his brothers without worrying about arrest warrants.

Of course, Nori expects the quest to go horribly wrong and most of them dead in a ditch. Trolls, orcs, stone giants, more orcs, sure. What he didn’t expect was Dwalin. Dwalin who looks at him, to check if Nori isn’t secrently robbing the Company blind at first, but then starts to look at him for quite a different reason.

But then, Erebor, and all of them get horribly busy trying not to die. When Thorin, Fili and Kili lain into the stone, Nori knows he can’t stay. He’ll return, of course, just like he always does, but he won’t stay. He says goodbye to Ori, who hugs him, and Dori, who sniffs at him, and disappears into the night. Because he knows that Dwalin would ask him to stay, but he just can’t. And that is a heartbreak he’d much rather avoid.


End file.
